In 1227, Genghis Khan's armies annihilated the Western Xia dynasty and scattered the Tangut people. Their kingdom was erased so thoroughly that for centuries scholars believed the Tangut had simply vanished from history. Then, in 1962, workers in the northern suburbs of Baoding, Hebei Province, discovered two octagonal stone pillars inscribed with a script that had been dead for centuries. The pillars had been erected in 1502 -- nearly 300 years after the Mongol conquest -- and they bore over 2,000 characters of Tangut text. Someone had been writing in this supposedly extinct language in a city 1,500 kilometers from the Tangut homeland, well into the Ming dynasty. The dead language was not so dead after all.
The Tangut script is extraordinarily complex -- a logographic writing system with thousands of characters that bears a superficial resemblance to Chinese but is linguistically independent. The Western Xia dynasty used it for official documents, Buddhist texts, and monumental inscriptions from the 11th century until the Mongol conquest of 1227. After the destruction of the Western Xia, conventional wisdom held that the Tangut script fell out of use as its speakers were absorbed into Mongol and Chinese populations. The Baoding pillars shattered that assumption. Erected in 1502 during the Ming dynasty, they are the latest known examples of the Tangut script anywhere in the world, extending the script's documented lifespan by centuries.
The pillars were found in the village of Hanzhuang, in what had been a Tibetan Buddhist temple. The Tangut inscription identifies it as Xishi Temple, though scholars Shi Jinbo and Bai Bin have argued this represents a Tangut rendering of the Chinese name Xingshan Temple, meaning "Temple for Promoting Goodness." Records indicate a temple of this name was established in Baoding during the Yuan dynasty. The monks' names are Tibetan, confirming it was a lamasery. A white Tibetan-style dagoba once stood at the site. Since the Tangut people practiced Tibetan Buddhism, it makes sense that Tangut monks would have lived and worshipped in a Tibetan monastery, even one located far from their ancestral territory in modern Ningxia and Gansu.
Both pillars are octagonal, with bases and mushroom-shaped canopies. Pillar A stands 2.28 meters tall; Pillar B, 2.63 meters. The Tangut text is engraved on most of their faces -- 983 characters on six sides of Pillar A, and 1,029 characters on five sides of Pillar B. A single line of Chinese text appears on Pillar A. Both bear a horizontal title in three Tangut characters meaning "Pillar of Victory Sign," which scholars interpret as shorthand for "Pillar of the Victorious Buddha-Crown Dharani-Sutra." The main text is the Dharani-Sutra of the Victorious Buddha-Crown, a Buddhist text associated with the transmigration of souls -- the same text that appears in Tangut on the 14th-century Cloud Platform at Juyongguan in Beijing, the only other known Tangut monumental inscription in northern China.
The eighth face of each pillar carries a long list of donors who funded the pillars' erection. More than eighty names appear across the two pillars, with no name repeated on both, suggesting a single fundraising campaign produced both monuments simultaneously. These names are the most direct evidence of a thriving Tangut community in early 16th-century Baoding -- people who had maintained their language, their Buddhist faith, and their script nearly three centuries after the Mongol Empire had tried to erase them from existence. Today the pillars stand in a courtyard near the main entrance of Baoding's Ancient Lotus Pond, surrounded by other historic inscriptions. They are among the most significant artifacts of Tangut civilization ever found, quiet proof that a conquered people can endure far longer than their conquerors intended.
Located at 38.86°N, 115.49°E at the Ancient Lotus Pond in Baoding, Hebei Province. Nearest major airport is Beijing Daxing International Airport (ZBAD), approximately 140 km to the northeast. The pillars are within Baoding's urban area and not visible from altitude, but the city itself is prominent on the North China Plain. The Taihang Mountains rise to the west, marking the ancient boundary between Hebei and Shanxi. Best viewed at 3,000-5,000 feet.